South Korea's education minister Tuesday sent his Japanese counterpart a letter sternly criticizing a renewed claim by Japan over South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo.
Kim Doh-yeon, minister of education, science and technology, sent the letter to his Japanese counterpart Kisaburo Tokai "sternly protesting" the revised education guideline, said Kim Dae-in, a ministry spokesman.
The letter delivered through the South Korean embassy in Japan lashed out at Tokyo's distortion of the two countries' shared history, ministry officials said.
Japan's Education Ministry Monday released a new guideline for junior high school teachers and textbook publishers to call Dokdo Japanese territory. Some called Tokyo's move "a blow to the head" for the Lee Myung-bak administration that has sought warmer ties with Japan.
Teachers and activists issued sharp criticism of Tokyo. Scores of teachers from the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations called for an immediate suspension of the education guideline, burning a large mock copy of the Japanese document in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul.
"The Japanese government, having never seriously reflected on its past wrongdoing, has committed this rash act that is reminiscent of its imperialism," Lee Won-hee, president of the 500,000-member teachers' group, was quoted as saying.